Seeing Myself in Another Body
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar.

There were three tanks in the room. Norm excitedly made a beeline straight for his avatar. Jake wheeled himself after Norm. As for Kiseki, she slowly walked towards the third tank which contained a more slender silhouette of an avatar compared to the other two, so she assumed that this one was hers. It was twice as large as she was. She looked carefully at its face, trying to find some semblance in its features compared to her own. Its hair was long, and some of it was free-flowing in the water. 'That's going to have to be fixed,' she thought sourly, 'I hate wearing my hair long...although I still need to keep the braid that contains the queue. "You are so lucky," a female voice gushed from behind her.

Kiseki spun around to find a woman her age, with black hair, a tanned complexion and green eyes.

"I'm Maria Suarez, cultural anthropologist and linguist," she introduced herself, "You must be Kiseki Stewart."

"Yeah, that's me," Kiseki sighed, "Wait, why am I so lucky?"

"Dr. Augustine and Dr. Patel decided to give these avatars a greater ratio of Na'vi to human DNA," Maria answered, "You'll see when you compare to my avatar."

"Kiseki!" Norm called out, "We're going into the link room."

Maria smiled, "I'll go in with you."

"And here comes Cinderella from the ball," Dr. Patel said.

Out of one of the links came a woman with red hair, it was Dr. Augustine!

"Uh, Grace, these are Norm, Kiseki and..." Dr. Patel was cut off by Dr. Augustine.

"Norm, Kiseki, how is your Na'vi?" she asked, completely ignoring Jake.

"May the Great Mother smile upon our first meeting," Norm recited.

"I see you Dr. Augustine," Kiseki smiled, "And may the Great Mother smile upon our meeting today."

"Good tone, but your pitch is iffy in some places, and call me Grace," she responded, then turned to Norm, "You are good too, but a little bit formal."

"I studied for five years, but there is still much to learn," Norm continued.

"Hi, I'm Jake," Jake introduced himself.

"Yeah, I know who you are," Grace answered, "But it's your brother I need, the scientist with the PhD who also studied for three years for this mission."

"He died," Jake said, "I know it's an inconvenience to everyone."

"How much lab training have you had?" she asked.

"I dissected a frog once," Jake deadpanned.

"Uh, actually there's more to hear than that Grace," Dr. Patel piped up, "Kiseki didn't even know she was transferred to the program until just now."

Grace scoffed, "You see, they're pissing on us without the courtesy of calling it rain. I'm going to see Selfridge."

"That might not be a good idea," Dr. Patel protested.

"I'm still going to kick his corporate butt for messing with my department," she yelled, already out the door.

Dr. Patel turned to Jake, "0800 tomorrow and please try to use big words."

"Hi," Maria said, turning to face Norm, "I'm Maria Suarez, cultural anthropologist and linguist."

Norm blushed deeply. "I-I'm Norm," he stuttered, "Xenoanthropologist."

'Yikes, he's doing that stutter again,' Kiseki thought, 'That can only mean one thing.'

When Kiseki and Norm first met he had stuttered when he introduced himself as well. They went on a few dates, but nothing happened. 'I guess he's moved on,' she thought, 'Good for him.' She turned around to find Maria standing behind her.

"So you didn't find out until today?" she asked.

"Well that is kind of obvious," Kiseki said with a roll of her eyes.

"If you want we can put one of the capsules into simulator mode," Maria offered, "It'll help you before doing the actual link tomorrow."

"Okay," Kiseki said, allowing herself to be led to a vacant neural link capsule, "If that's no problem with you."

"Not at all Miracle-girl," Maria answered.

"Miracle?" she asked.

Maria raised an eyebrow, "Kiseki, in Japanese it means miracle. Didn't you know that?"

"Well I was evacuated out of Japan as a baby before the rising sea levels caused the country to be submerged in water," Kiseki explained, "And I was put into a few foster families, but none of the families I stayed with had any knowledge of my culture, except for technological advances sometimes, but that was it."

"That was 2127 wasn't it?" Maria said sadly, "It really was such a shame that only children were evacuated, without much knowledge of their own heritage."

Kiseki shifted awkwardly, wanting to change the subject, "Can we go do this simulator thingy?"

"Sure thing."

Meanwhile Grace was at Selfridge's operating base. Parker Selfridge was currently occupied putting golf balls into a nearby coffee mug. "You see that?" he asked gleefully. Before he could put another ball in Grace kicked it out of the way.

"Oops," she said, although in all honesty she could care less about Parker's stupid putter.

"Wow Grace, do you know how much I love our little talks," Selfridge said sarcastically.

"You know Parker, I used to think it was benign neglect, but now I see that you are intentionally screwing me," Grace frowned.

"Is this about the marine?" Selfridge asked, "Because in all honesty I thought we were lucky that our dead guy had a twin brother that wasn't some oral hygienist or something. A marine that we can use, he's going to be assigned to your group as security detail."

"The last thing we need is another trigger happy moron out there," Grace snapped, "And it's not just that, you didn't even inform Kiseki Stewart that she was transferred to my department."

"Yeah, that screw up wasn't my fault," he sneered, "Don't expect me to take care of your department's screw ups."

Grace raised an eyebrow, "If I remember correctly it was YOUR department that handled her file and as she was originally going to be in YOUR department it was technically YOUR responsibility to contact her."

Selfridge rubbed his forehead with agitation then turned to Grace, "I've had more important things on my mind, come into my office."

Grace followed him into the office. "You see this Grace," he said in a condescending tone, holding up a dark rock, "Unobtanium, this is the reason why we are here, because it sells for 20million a kilo. This is what pays for your science. Which isn't making any progress might I add? Isn't the whole point, look like the natives, sound like the natives, learn what they want and solve this diplomatically. Because from where I'm standing relations with the natives have only been deteriorating."

"That tends to happen when you point machine guns at them," Grace answered.

"Look, there's nothing you can do now Grace, so why don't you go back to your science now, comprendė?" he said.

Grace groaned and stormed out of his office.

Kiseki collapsed dizzily on the bunk bed. If this was simulation, how bad was it going to be doing the real thing?

"Where were you?" Norm asked from the top bunk.

"Doing one and a half hours of neural link simulation with Maria," she answered wearily.

Norm sighed, "My first time was a bit disorientating, but over time you get used to it."

"Well I don't have that time," Kiseki protested, "Remember; we're doing the actual link up tomorrow!"

"Yeah, but don't stress, one and a half hours simulation is better than none," he advised, "Just sleep on it."

"Okay," she said, "Night."

The next morning Kiseki found herself waking up early and heading down to the cafeteria to eat breakfast, she was surprised to see Jake already there.

"Morning Jake," she greeted, taking the seat next to him.

"Morning, Kiseki, right?" he said.

"Yeah, I didn't expect anyone to be up this early," she said.

"Its habit for me," Jake said, "I usually get up this early to train, if you look outside now you'll find most of the Sec-ops out there."

"Ah, well I just couldn't sleep," she answered sheepishly, then taking a bite out of her toast.

"Hey, I was just wondering, what's with your name?" he asked, "It's not one that I've heard before."

"It's Japanese, and apparently it means Miracle," Kiseki answered, not really wanting to delve deeper into the topic.

The waking bell rang to signify that it was time to come to breakfast. As the Sec-ops walked in Kiseki put down her unfinished toast. "I'm not really so hungry now," she muttered, standing up and taking her coffee with her, "I'll see you in the link room Jake."

"Thank you," he called out.

"Why?" she asked.

"For being the first person that hasn't compared me to my brother," he answered.

At 8 o'clock Kiseki Norm and Jake were at the link room. "So, how much neural link simulation have you done?" Grace asked.

"I logged in 520 hours," Norm answered proudly.

She then turned to Kiseki, "I understand the circumstances if you haven't done any yet."

"I actually did one and a half hours with Maria last night," Kiseki answered.

Grace nodded, "Good to see you take the initiative. How about you Jake?"

"I read the manual," he answered blankly, "And I'll just see how it goes."

Grace stared at him incredulously, "So you figured you'd come out here to the most hostile environment known to man just to see how it goes? What was going through your head?"

"Maybe I was just sick of doctors telling me what I couldn't do," he replied, "And don't bother, I got this." And he hoisted himself up into the neural link capsule.

Grace stood over his link, "Now just let your mind go blank, it shouldn't be too hard."

"Kiss the darkest part of my lily-white..."

Grace slammed the capsule shut before Jake could finish.

"You better get going too Kiseki," Grace said.

She nodded before allowing the capsule to be closed over her head. She closed her eyes and hoped that things would go better than the night before.

My sight was slightly blurred as I opened my eyes. "Kiseki?" I heard Norm ask, "Are you awake?"

"It'll be awhile before she can respond Norm," a female voice said. Above me as a woman, slightly older than I was, with blonde hair and light brown eyes. "Hi, I'm Claire," she said, "Now I want you to stay still for a few minutes."

She shone a torch in my eyes and started snapping her fingers in my left ear. "She's reacting well, that's good."

Suddenly I heard Jake laughing to himself on the gurney to my right and a crash. "What's happening?" I asked. Slowly I got up so the blood wouldn't suddenly rush into my head, only to have my eye nearly taken out by Jake's tail.

"Watch it Jake!" I yelled, standing up, only to fall back on the gurney again, "You nearly took my freaking eye out!"

"Sorry," Jake yelled, ignoring the protests of Dr. Patel and tearing the door open to run out into the sunlight.

"I'll go get him," Norm said, standing up and taking off.

Claire and I looked at each other as the two idiots ran outside.

"Men."

When I was given the all-clear by Dr. Patel (who told me to call him Max) I walked slowly out into the sunlight in the clothes that have been given to me. Although the t-shirt was a little bit baggy, so I had to tie the bottom part of it into a knot so it was more form-fitting.

"Hey Kiseki!" Norm yelled, running over in normal clothing, "Isn't this awesome?"

As he ran by I yanked him on the tail, hard.

"Ow!" he yelped, "What was that for?"

"Leaving me behind on a gurney, that's what," I answered coolly.

"Oh, sorry," he said, sweat-dropping at the reminder, "I was just so excited." Then he turned to a vine, plucked a fruit and threw it to me, "Catch."

I caught the fruit and examined it; it wasn't like anything I've ever seen before.

"Try it," Norm said excitedly, "It's really good."

Hesitantly I took a bite, almost moaning as the taste filled my mouth. "Fwit's fwamazing," I said with my mouth still full.

"Hey Kiseki," Maria called, running over, "Good to see you out and about."

I looked closely at Maria in her avatar body, noticing how close to actual human proportionality it was and then looked down at my own, I looked anorexic!

"Hey! How come your clothes fit better?" I scowled.

"I told you," Maria answered, "Your avatar has more Na'vi DNA than mine, you don't even have eyebrows."

I instantly felt my forehead, and to my astonishment she was right, I had no eyebrows! I looked down at my hands, relieved to find that I still had five fingers, and I then held my foot up, finding five toes.

"Come on," she said, "We're going to get briefed in a few minutes."

"Okay," Grace said, "In two days we are embarking into the forest to take some samples from the trees there, and this is in the hope that the Omaticaya Clan, the clan that lives there see us and hopefully see that we don't mean the forest harm and take either Norm or Kiseki in."

"Wait," Kiseki interrupted, "Why me? Why not Maria?"

Maria shook her head sadly, "They've seen me before and refused to take me in, apparently I was more alien than Na'vi, so that's why Grace and Max increased the Na'vi DNA ratio this time around.

"Okay then," Kiseki sighed.

"You really think we could be taken in?" Norm asked excitedly, this was his biggest dream since he first started studying to be an anthropologist.

"Well you are a peaceful guy, and Kiseki would need to learn so she can see the forest properly," Grace answered, "You two have better chances as well." Then she turned to Jake, "As for you, don't say a word, let Norm and Kiseki do all the talking, are we clear?"

Jake nodded.

"Okay, let's link out and have dinner," Grace said, "You three have two days to get used to your bodies before we leave."

When they went into the cabin Kiseki turned to Maria, "Could you help me fix my hair?"

"Why?" Maria asked, "If you are taken in you'll probably be able to have it fixed there."

Kiseki sighed, "I just want to feel like myself again, and having my hair styled similar to the way it was before would help."

"I know how you feel," Maria smiled, "It's like a dream isn't it? That's why the Na'vi call us dream walkers, because we aren't really Na'vi and we have to wake up eventually."

Kiseki rolled her eyes, "I know that."

Maria took out a pair of scissors, "Come here."

Kiseki leaned back into the pillow, her head felt lighter already, she never really liked wearing her hair long, of course she still had her braid surrounding her queue, but at least her head didn't feel as heavy. "Good night Maria," she said.

"Night."

A/N: Yeah, I think italics meaning Na'vi is kind of obvious. Anyway, I have to take some creative licence here because I don't know the script for the movie word for word. If there are slip-ups, please let me know in a review.